First, the executive chairman of Groupon's board is Eric Lefkofsky. It was Lefkofsky who gave Mason his first job and his first $1 million in seed money to found Groupon, back in 2008. Since then, Lefkofsky has retained a close financial relationship with Groupon (his other companies draw revenue from Groupon). For Lefkofsky to fire Mason would be like him firing his own son — after that son had made him a gazillionaire in stock.

This chart (click to enlarge) shows how he did that. It's an unusual chart — most companies pay attention to margin management and the lines rise and fall in neat parallels. But what it really shows is a massive company in a titanic struggle with itself to leverage its operating costs to profitability. The stock market, oddly, is punishing Mason for that right now. Mason doesn't control the stock market, of course. So if the board had handed Mason his exit package it would have been punishing him for doing what he said he would so, and what the directors (presumably) signed off on more than a year ago.

So why did AllThingsD's Kara Swisher write her story? Probably because she had a chat with someone who was describing the background context of Mason's tenure, which has existed since the company was founded. Groupon is Mason's first real job. He didn't have CEO experience before this. He's an unusual guy. The company now has 12,000-plus employees. Which means it's only normal for board members to ask whether the company might be better off with a more seasoned executive. That notion is as old as the company itself. And it ignores the Mason-Lefkofsky relationship. And it ignores the fact that Groupon, despite (or because of) its weirdness, is a success.

And that's why the notion that Mason was about to be fired ... was wrong.

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First, Kara's story didn't say Andrew WOULD BE fired, especially at this particular board meeting. What it said was that the board was seriously discussing it.

Second, everything I hear (and read) suggests that Lefkofsky and Mason were close once but now pretty much hate each other. The most logical reason that story appeared, in my opinion, is that Lefkofsky finally got fed up and decided to make a move.

I also don't think it's safe to say that Andrew "didn't get fired." I think it's safe to say that he "hasn't gotten fired yet." He's still clearly in limbo, as is the company. And the statement the company issued after the board meeting didn't even give a nod toward saying the Board fully supported Mason.

I think the fact that insiders confirmed that the Board is discussing firing Mason put him in a position that is almost impossible to recover from. You are right that Groupon is in better shape than a lot of people think (starting with the fact that it's making money--which is something that many people smugly predicted would never happen). But the international business is a mess, the core daily deals business has significant problems, and the long-term strategy still doesn't seem completely coherent yet.

So I think about the only thing we can say is that Mason hasn't been canned yet.